San Diego Comic Con was overwhelming and not for the faint hearted, but also one of the most unique experiences of geekdom I’ve ever had. After taking a week to recover I wanted share a few highs and lows, insights and lessons learned from a first time SDCC attendee.

Under the cut you’ll find the panels and presentations for Thursday and Friday at San Diego Comic Con 2013. Arturo and I will be live-tweeting panels throughout the four days (follow the official Racialicious account @Racialicious, Art @aboynamedart, and myself @wriglied to stay on top of things), and providing wrap ups and pictures afterwards. Asterisked events indicate things we’re definitely planning on attending, while the others are recommendations that just look interesting or fun.

If you’re just planning on wandering around and you happen to see either of us don’t hesitate to say hello! For my part, I’ll be the exhausted looking Black girl dressed as either a Captain America USO girl, a Teen Wolf lacrosse player, Maxine from Batman Beyond, or Indiana Jones.

Let us know in the comments if you have questions for specific panels via the comments, and stay tuned for Saturday and Sunday programming coming later today.

I watched the season premiere of Girls last week deciding that–after a good hour or so of snark directed in Dunham’s direction on Twitter– I’d pretend I didn’t know any of the drama swirling around the show. Why? Well, I only made it four episodes into Season One of Girls, less because of my offended sensibilities and more because I was just bored. The show bored me–and before you say anything, my addiction to Showtime and FX hour-longs proves that I’m capable of enjoying TV without vampires, werewolves, and witches, okay?

Anyway, I was bored with last season but I was willing to make a concession: given how I felt about the show’s…well, everything…was I really going to judge it fairly? Probably not. So Season 2 was going to get the benefit of the doubt.

After reading her smart essay–and seeing how she dealt with some fooligan respectability-politics criticism in the thread about her post being fluff under the guise of an academic-sounding title–I had to be friends with her. We friended, and I’ve been deep into her brilliantly funny loving-The-Community commentary on vids about gospelizing over chicken, praise leaders losing their shoe trying to be cute and jumping on cheaply made tables, and people doing the Robot at church services (among other ones) ever since. Hanging with Heidi is like hanging with that one wild-ass play cousin whose pithy ongoing social commentary has you holler-laughing for days.

In other words, totally Crush-worthy.

Of course, I talked to Dr. Heidi…but I had to talk about her lively ass, too! Check out what I said to Crush alum Tamura Lomax about our latest one…

The New Normal has no shame left, is what I was thinking during the whole episode. In this week’s episode, Shania (played by the ever-so-cute Bebe Wood) had to come up with an influential woman to cover for a presentation recital–do these actually happen? I’m actually curious–and perform the speech in front of the parents at school. And, boy, did she perform…because she chose Cher. Walking up to stage in a hot pink war bonnet–I don’t want to even start with that again right now because, when she starts to sing, it gets worse…

Before we get to criticisms, let’s start on a positive note: Overall, I loved attending New York Comic Con this past weekend. Entrenched in one giant convention center with my fellow geeks, I was mostly able to ignore the fact that most of us had no way to contact the outside world…or the friends we got separated from in the massive crowds.

Waiting in line for panels was actually the best way to escape the crowds at NYCC which seemed to take over all of midtown Manhattan (I was nearly hit by a van on 10th Ave driven by what looked like Daenerys and Spider-Man) and, as suspected, Saturday’s panels proved most exciting. Here’s a brief wrap up of two major panels and some general NYCC news and observations for those who weren’t able to attend:

I never wanted to write about MTV’s Teen Wolf on the R. I tried so hard to avoid writing about it that, until this point, I’ve ignored that one time one of the lead actors got caught in blackface, a season and a half worth of problematic characters of color, and the question of whitewashed heroes. This show was supposed to be lighthearted fun peppered with beautiful abdominal muscles.

Unfortunately, that changed in the course of hours one night when Jeff Davis, the show’s creator, started a Tumblr, dedicated his inaugural post to the topic of race of the show, received over 1,000 notes on said post, and then deleted everything altogether when his opinions on race and diversity were not taken well by a PoC and social justice-themed audiences.

It’s the classic case of another well-meaning white male who forgot to check his white privilege at the door.Continue reading →

Race, Culture, and Identity in a Colorstruck World

About This Blog

Racialicious is a blog about the intersection of race and pop culture. Check out our daily updates on the latest celebrity gaffes, our no-holds-barred critique of questionable media representations, and of course, the inevitable Keanu Reeves John Cho newsflashes.

Latoya Peterson (DC) is the Owner and Editor (not the Founder!) of Racialicious, Arturo García (San Diego) is the Managing Editor, Andrea Plaid (NYC) is the Associate Editor. You can email us at team@racialicious.com.